Keoshkerian et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,469,094 describes a process for the preparation of polymeric particulate materials employing a free radical polymerizable monomer, a free radical initiator and a stable free radical compound wherein the process includes a first bulk polymerization where controlled initiation and limited or partial monomer polymerization is accomplished for the purpose of preparing a prepolymer mixture followed by a second stage miniemulsion polymerization where substantially complete monomer polymerization is accomplished.
In copending application, U.S. Ser. No. 10/357,540, a process is described for preparing polymeric particles by a stable free radical polymerization (“SFRP”) process wherein the polymeric particles contain covalently bound functional groups on the particle surface. An advantage of the SFRP process is that the resulting resin has narrow polydispersities. According to U.S. Ser. No. 10/357,540, page 12, lines 8–11, the presence of functional groups on the surface of the polymeric particles is advantageous for chemical toner fabrication because the surface charges allow for aggregants to react with them and thus result in latex aggregation from nanometer sized particles to micrometer sized chemical toner.
There is a need, which the present invention address, for toner fabrication processes that incorporates the polymeric particles prepared by SFRP into toner.
Exemplary polymerization processes and toner fabrication processes (particularly emulsion/aggregation/coalescing processes for the preparation of toners) are described in the following:
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